Some time ago, I read a story and felt it contained a brilliant illustration, so thought I would share it with you. A seminar presenter wanted to illustrate something, so she held a glass of water and went around the room asking participants how heavy they thought the glass of water was. Some responded that the glass was half full or half empty. Others tried to estimate the volume of the glass and the weight of the water in the glass.
She then proceeded to tell them that the weight depended entirely on how long she held onto the glass. If she held onto the glass of water for one minute, it wasn’t a problem. Should she hold onto it for an hour, her arm would be aching and if she held onto it the whole day, her arm would feel numb and be paralysed. She stated that while the weight didn’t actually change, the longer she held onto it, the heavier it became.
Stresses and worries in our lives can be a lot like that. If we think about them for a short time, nothing too much happens. Think about them for a bit longer and they start to hurt us. What happens though if we think about them all day or all night long? We can feel paralysed emotionally and incapable of doing anything.
We definitely should think about the things that stress or concern us, but we need to make sure we don’t try and hang onto them for too long. Sometimes, we need to make a deliberate choice to put them down.
(Source: John Assaraf’s Facebook Page)
